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Building The Future

To head off a crisis and to help the economy back to growth the Government needs to help the housing market

September 6 2012, 1:01am, The Times

The first 105 sections of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 have passed off without too much incident. But section 106, for those who read that far, has proved to be the site of a long-running argument about the deficiencies of the housing market.

Section 106 agreements mean that, in exchange for a licence to build profitable housing, developers have to provide infrastructure and units that are known in the trade as “affordable” housing. The requirement reduces the profit on development and contributes to a situation in which the large developers hoard land in a sluggish market which they purchased at high prices and which they are now unwilling to use until the price rises. At a point of acute housing need, with a…